Travels with Twinkles

Clayton - Des Moins - Capulin Volcano NM - Raton, New Mexico

July 13 -15, 2023:

I’m pulled over at an intersection and I'm debating which way to go, Colorado or New Mexico ? I decide on the route heading to Woodward, New Mexico as it's a town unknown to me. It’s very odd how as soon as you cross over the state line into New Mexico the terrain changes, like a light being turned on, there are now rolling hillside covered in Pinion Pine and Sage. New Mexico is a beautiful state, somewhat underrated.

I am traveling on route 64 when I rediscover the Santa FeTrail again. I stop at a roadside sign indicating that this is the Mc Ness Crossing, famous as the location where two men were killed by Indians. There are actual ruts here that are claimed to be from the wheels of Santa Fe trail wagons. It's sort of hard to believe that after 195 years they would still show, but I'll believe it.

The wagon ruts

I arrive in Clayton, New Mexico about noon and do my usual thing, park the van and walk the main drag taking photos of anything of interest. I am liking this downtown, it has a beautiful old historic Hotel and Restaurant, The" Eklund" and several other historic buildings, some in good condition, other falling apart. This downtown is vibrant, people actually come here to shop ? There is also heavy truck traffic, cattle haulers mostly and ranch pickup trucks with their flat bed bodies and front brush bars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton,_New_Mexico

The local newspaper, the Union County Leader

The front of the Eklund Hotel

Coffee shop in front of the old grain elevator

Attractive downtown

The Luna Theater

It appears that Pixie is out of business

The Eklund is the premier place in town

Several murals in town

A storm is headed my way in late afternoon

I take refuge in the 87 Restaurant

After about an hour, it's getting too hot, so I go to the air conditioned Herzstein Memorial Museum. This is another amazing local history museum on two floors that are dedicated to this amazingly enterprising Jewish immigrant, Morris Herzstein, who built and ran an amazing store for decades. He was eventually joined by other family members to operate the store. They had a large exhibit about him and his family with many photos and personal artifacts. It was an inspirational story, the kind you don't hear about, the news media is usually more interested in the bad people.

The Museum

Clayton was right in the middle of the dust bowl

So much great art came from this program

Sally was a local hero

A pretty cool story

I don't quite understand what is funny

A very remarkable family connection

Good advice !

Sadly, Clayton is most known for the public hanging of the notorious outlaw Black Jack Ketchum. He was kind of handsome and dashing looking man in the photos which contributes to the his legend and the the attending western lore. It probably wouldn’t have become such a noted event had not his head dislocated from his body during the hanging. Of course a photographer was there to get a nice gory photograph of it.

Funded by the NRA ?

I find a stealthy parking spot on a back street for the night amidst threatening dark storm clouds. Here we go again, severe storm warnings from the Weather Channel and it does occur around 11 PM and lasts for about two hours, but no hail, no extreme wind, but really heavy rain. Truth be told, I’m getting tired of these scary nighttime storms, I wonder how the locals get used to it ?

In the morning, I'm back on the road, on route 64 north heading for the Capulin Volcano National Monument. I make one stop along the route at the small town of Des Moins, NM for a few photos.

The old trading post

The new coffee shop

The old hotel

I use my America the Beautiful senior pass for the first time this year which gets me into the Capulin Volcano National Monument for free. It’s a fairly simple park with one road spiraling up the volcanos cone with great views of the valley below. Once at the top parking lot, you have two hiking trails options, one is a 1/4 mile steeply downhill path into the volcano’s crater or a one mile trail that goes steeply uphill winding around the cone about half way up and then steeply back to the parking lot. I did both trails, they aren’t really that hard and the views were especially good on the upper trail. There was much vegetation and flowering plants along the upper trail.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capulin_Volcano_National_Monument

A decent road up, but few guard rails

The trail into the crater

Looking up from the crater

The upper trail

The view from the top

A more scenic uphill area

Many flowering cactus on the trail

That tree looks like a work of art, but it's real

After the volcano, I continue to Raton, New Mexico which I have been to several times and it is a favorite place. The last time here, much was closed due to covid, this time most everything is open. Raton is actually looking better these days, it has an artsy downtown element and the town seems to be promoting its charms. Raton has an interesting downtown historic district, see the link below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raton,_New_Mexico

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raton_Downtown_Historic_District

Interesting brick work and Lion head embellishments

This building has been vacant for a long time, hope that changes soon

The Raton rail depot is beautiful and is still served by Amtrak

The El Raton is open as a movie theater

I happened to be passing by the "Shuler Theater" after reading that they do tours on Thursday to Saturday from noon to 4 PM. I pushed at the front door and to my surprise, it opened and a young man offered me a tour, just what I wanted ! It has a series of beautiful WPA paintings of surrounding towns in the foyer The Theater interior is very ornate and mostly original although portions required restoration after being empty for several years. It also has the original stage curtain from when the theater was built in 1916.

The 107 year old curtain

As seen from these photos, it's beautiful

A couple of the foyer paintings, I'm guessing there were about 10 total

I then wandered around the downtown, taking some photos while a storm system with huge clouds was approaching. I saw that the "Raton Museum" was open, I had to go in as it it’s always been closed when here in the past. Truthfully, I’ve been doing so many museums lately that I’m sort of burned out on them at present. Since I was carrying the camera, I was told no photography allowed of the art work on the perimeter walls and they have a lot of it. The building itself is almost a work of art. There was a lot of stuff on two floors, I bypassed the more ordinary items that I see all the time, I’m becoming such a snob ! As I was inside the store the storm came through but was only a light shower. As I came out, I saw that I needed to redo some of my photos as the light was much improved.

I'm not a dog lover, but you have to be really low to steal this, see
the story below on Tom

A traffic jam in Raton in the past

This local band, The Fireballs were very popular

Raton Pass is really an awesome ride

I was happy to see that the “Alternatives to violence thrift store” remains open, so great to see that kind of vibe. Also happy to see that the Gate City Craft Bar was open, it’s usually not open when I am here. After wandering around for a while I return to the Gate City Craft Bar for dinner, their menu is limited but what they have is very good. It’s decorated very nicely inside, but I was hoping there would live music tonight. They have a very nice stage setup and a very nice pool room off to the side, but unfortunately no music tonight.

The used to have a really cool railroad locomotive sign, hope it comes back

Very nice inside, but the craft beers are lacking

In the morning, I find my way to the Raton sign on the top of the hill overlooking the town. It’s the highest place for miles and affords a great view of the city and surrounding valley. I then check out the post office which does have WPA murals, (I think they are) and then take some photos of the beautiful Colfax County Court House. Last but not least, I visit the Public Library, another wonderful Carnegie Library. This one has many WPA art works from the 1930’s with ornate labeled frames, but also many other great pictures, not WPA, on the walls.